Seedless wirebond pad plating

ABSTRACT

An integrated circuit (IC) chip, semiconductor wafer with IC chips in a number of die locations and a method of making the IC chips on the wafer. The IC chips have plated chip interconnect pads. Each plated pad includes a noble metal plated layer electroplated to a platable metal layer. The platable metal layer may be copper and the noble metal plated layer may be of gold, platinum, palladium, rhodium, ruthenium, osmium, iridium or indium.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application is a divisional application of U.S. Pat. No.7,115,997 entitled “SEEDLESS WIREBOND PAD PLATING” to ChandrasekharNarayan et al., filed Nov. 19, 2003, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,115,997 filedcoincident herewith, both of which are assigned to the assignee of thepresent invention and incorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention is related to semiconductor device manufacturingand more particularly to forming off chip connection pads forsemiconductor integrated circuit (IC) chips.

2. Background Description

Typical semiconductor integrated circuit (IC) chips are multilayeredunits well known in the art with layers stacked such that layer featuresoverlay one another to form individual devices and connect devicestogether. Individual layers normally are patterned lithographicallyusing well known photolithographic techniques as applied tosemiconductor manufacturing. State of the art chips have a surface layerpopulated by chip connection pads for input/output (I/O) and powerconnections, e.g., by wire bonding to the pads or with solder ballsformed on the pads, e.g., for ball grid array (BGA) joining. Typically,the pads are of a self passivating material such as aluminum for wirebonding, which has an acceptable yield and, a relatively low falloutfrom pad failures and pad connection failures. Further, self passivatingaluminum and connections to it can withstand the normal stressesencountered in chip use.

However, while aluminum may be self passivating and provide relativelyreliable connections, aluminum is not amenable for plating and so, notan ideal choice for low cost IC wiring or for chip connections. Ideally,instead of aluminum, the I/O and power pads would be of a noble metal,e.g., gold or platinum, for high quality low resistance pads.Unfortunately, forming such noble metal pads has been difficult and hasproven too costly to be implemented for widespread use. U.S. Pat. No.6,368,484 B1 entitled “Selective Plating Process” to Volant et al. andU.S. Pat. No. 6,534,863 B2 entitled “Common Ball-Limiting Metallurgy forI/O Sites” to Walker et al., both assigned to the assignee of thepresent invention and incorporated herein by reference teach methods offorming electroplated pads on a semiconductor wafer. Both Volant et al.and Walker et al. teach forming a liner layer on the semiconductor waferand selectively forming a seed layer at pad locations. Unfortunately,the seed layer may form in (undesired) locations other than at padlayers. Further, the liner and seed layers must be cleanly removed oncethe pads are formed without damaging underlying structures. So, whilechip pads can be formed as taught by both Volant et al. and Walker etal., the result is a comparatively low chip yield, e.g., due tocontamination introduced in pad formation, which further increases chipcost to a prohibitive level.

Thus, there is a need for low cost, low resistance, high yield and veryreliable off-chip connections or pads and especially, for off-chip padsformed of a noble metal that can be electrolytically plated.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is a purpose of the invention to improve off-chip interconnects;

It is another purpose of the invention to improve off-chip padresistance and current capacity;

It is yet another purpose of the invention to provide low cost noblemetal off-chip interconnects.

The present invention relates to an integrated circuit (IC) chip,semiconductor wafer with IC chips in a number of die locations and amethod of making the IC chips on the wafer. The IC chips have platedchip interconnect pads. Each plated pad includes a noble metal platedlayer on a barrier metal layer. The barrier metal layer may be tantalumnitride on tantalum and the noble metal plated layer may be gold orplatinum.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The foregoing and other objects, aspects and advantages will be betterunderstood from the following detailed description of a preferredembodiment of the invention with reference to the drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 shows the plan view of a semiconductor wafer with individualintegrated circuit (IC) chips formed thereon with plated terminal metalaccording to a preferred embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2A shows a cross sectional example of a chip through anelectroplatable pad, preferably a copper pad;

FIG. 2B shows a cross-sectional example of another preferred embodimentin area B of FIG. 2A;

FIGS. 3A-B show plated electroplatable pads for each of thecorresponding examples of FIGS. 2A-B;

FIG. 4 shows an example of a flow diagram showing steps in formingelectroplated IC chips on a wafer according to preferred embodiments ofthe present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Turning now to the drawings and, more particularly, FIG. 1 shows theplan view of a semiconductor wafer 100 with individual integratedcircuit (IC) chips formed thereon in die locations 102 and with terminalmetal electrolytically plated or electroplated according to a preferredembodiment of the present invention. For simplicity of description andfor example only, the chips 102 are treated as identical copies of thesame chip, e.g., a microprocessor, although each die 102 may be a uniquecopy of an individual IC chip. A kerf or cutting space 104 separates thedie 102. Normally, the kerf space 104 is wasted wafer area though whicha cutting instrument, e.g., a saw blade, passes to separate the die intoindividual chips and is wide enough that the cutting instrument canseparate the die into individual chips without damage to the chips. Aconductive ring 106, which provides a superior electrical contact forplating equipment, encircles the wafer 100 and, in this example,connects to both ends of grid lines 108 in the kerf 104 to form aconductive grid over the wafer 100.

The conductive ring 106 and grid lines 108 may be one or more layers ofany suitable non-platable conductive material or a combination of suchconductive materials as are well known in the art. In particular,suitable conductive material may include, for example, nickel (Ni),tantalum (Ta), tantalum nitride (TaN), titanium (Ti), titanium nitride(TiN), aluminum (Al), tungsten (W), chromium (Cr), titanium tungsten(TiW) and combinations thereof. A typical state of the art insulating orpassivation layer, e.g., nitride, covers the wafer, leaving exposed onlythe conductive ring 106 and input/output (I/O) and power pads, typicallyin an array on each die. The grid lines 108 are electrically connectedto the pads in each of the die 102 for biasing the pads duringelectroplating according to a preferred embodiment of the presentinvention as described herein below. This opening to the conductive ring106 can be formed during an etch (pad opening etch) that opens theinsulator to the pad terminals. Alternatively, the grid lines 108 may becovered with a spin-on insulator (i.e. polyimide or a photo sensitivetype spin-on insulator) and the ring patterned, developed and openedwith solvents during a photolithography step.

FIG. 2A shows a cross sectional example of a chip (e.g., in die 110 inFIG. 1) through an electroplatable pad 112, preferably copper/nickel. Inthis example, the electroplatable pad 112 is at the periphery 111 of thedie 110, i.e., adjacent to the kerf 104. Also, the die 110 is in aperiphery die location and so, nothing is shown connected to theopposite side of grid line 108. Each electroplatable pad 112 includes atemporary strap 114 (preferably, a tungsten strap) in a lower wiringlayer in this example. So, for this example, the temporary straps 114may be formed at the semiconductor device surface, i.e., after front endof the line (FEOL) processing on a typical semiconductor wafer such as,on the silicon surface layer 116 of a silicon on insulator (SOI) wafer.Vertical interlevel wiring vias 118 through insulating material layers119 connect chip wiring 120 at multiple wiring layers to electricallyconnect each electroplatable pad 112 to its corresponding temporarystrap 114. Preferably, the wiring 120 and interlevel wiring vias 118connecting the electroplatable pads 112 to the temporary straps 114 arecopper. Stacked vias or studs 122, which may also be copper,electrically connect the temporary straps 114 to a grid line 108. Thus,an electrical path is formed from the grid lines 108 through the studs122 to the temporary straps 114, from the temporary straps 114 throughchip wiring 120 and interlevel vias 118 to the electroplatable pads 112.

An inboard crack stop ring 124 along the die/kerf boundary defines thedie and prevents chip cracking when the wafer is diced to separate thechips from one another. Since the crack stop ring 124 remains with andremains part of the particular diced chip, it cannot be part of the padto grid conductive path and thus, the underlying temporary straps arenecessary. Further, other than the temporary straps 114, no chip wiringpasses beyond the crack stop ring 124 with the straps 114 providing anelectrical path from the electroplatable pads 112 to respective gridlines 108. Cavities 126 are formed through the passivating layer 128expose the electroplatable pads 112 for subsequent electroplating. Theconductive ring 106, the upper surface of which is also exposed,combines with the grid (of grid lines 108) to complete an electricalconnection to all electroplatable pads 112 forming a single electrodesuch that with a bias applied to the conductive ring 106, platingnucleates on the copper electroplatable pads 112 to form the final chippads. An insulating layer (not shown) on the temporary straps 114isolates the crack stop ring 124, electrically, from the straps 114.This insulating layer may be formed after a trench is opened for thecrack stop ring 124 and before the trench is filled with material toform the crack stop ring 124. A normal kerf etch would remove any suchinsulating material on the straps 114 at stacked vias 122 assuring agood electrical contact from the straps 114 to stacked vias 122.

FIG. 2B shows a cross-sectional example of another preferred embodimentin area B of FIG. 2A with all other features being substantially thesame. In this embodiment, a barrier layer 130 of any suitablenon-platable metal is deposited on the wafer 100. Barrier layer 130 maybe the same material as the grid lines, such as for example, Ni, Ta,TaN, Cu, Ti, TiW, Cr, W or any combinations thereof and, preferably, istantalum nitride on tantalum (Ta/TaN). The barrier layer is patterned toopen an orifice 132 at each electroplatable pad 112 and, essentially,form a donut shaped barrier ring 134 at each of the electroplatable pads112. Donut shaped barrier rings 134 act as a liner or adhesion layer forthe plating is to nucleate at the particular electroplatable pad 112.So, for this embodiment the electroplatable pads 112 serve a dualpurpose acting as both the last copper wire level and to initiate metalnucleation during plating, which both Volant et al. and Walker et al.needed a separate seed layer deposited on the exposed portion of theelectroplatable pad to accomplish.

FIGS. 3A-B show electroplated pads for each of the correspondingexamples of FIGS. 2A-B through area B. After forming the waferstructures 100 with electroplatable pads 112 as in FIG. 2A or 2B, forexample, a plating bias supply is applied to the conductive ring 106,which passes the plating bias current to the grid lines 108. Each gridline 108 passes the plating bias supply through the studs 122, temporarystraps 114, chip wiring 120 and interlevel vias 118 to connectedelectroplatable pads 112, biasing each for electroplating, preferablywith a noble metal, e.g., gold, platinum, palladium, rhodium, ruthenium,osmium, iridium or indium, and most preferably gold. Then, the wafer isbiased at a suitable plating bias voltage and immersed in a suitableelectroplating solution using a state of the art plating tool,preferably an edge sealed tool to prevent plating the conductive ring106. During electroplating, the electroplatable pads 112 prevent theelectroplating noble metal (Au) from contacting circuit wiring and themetal plating 140, 142 nucleates on electroplatable pads 112 partiallyor completely filling the cavities 126. Once the plated pads 140, 142are complete, any additional attach material, such as solder balls(e.g., controlled collapsible chip connections (C4)) for flip chipbonding, may be applied to the plated pads 140, 142 or, for wirebonding, the plated pads 140, 142 remain exposed and the wafer iscomplete and ready for dicing. Thereafter, when the wafer is diced toseparate the individual chips, the temporary plating wiring (i.e., theconductive ring 106, grid lines 108, studs 122 and portions of thetemporary straps 114 encroaching farthest on the kerf 104) is removedwith the kerf 104.

FIG. 4 shows a flow diagram 150 of an example for forming electroplatedintegrated circuit chips according to preferred embodiments of thepresent invention. First, in step 152 the wafer is patterned for chipsto identify individual die and circuit areas and circuit devices arepatterned in typical FEOL processing steps. Next in step 154, straps(e.g., 114) are formed and patterned on the FEOL wafer for strappingpads to the subsequently formed grid lines. In typical semiconductormanufacturing wiring formation step 156 (e.g., photlithographicallypatterning metal, forming an insulating layer and repeating) circuitwiring is formed, wiring devices together into circuits and wiringcircuits together. Next, in step 156 connecting each pad to anunderlying strap formed in step 154. It should be noted that since somepads (supply pads in particular) are connected together normally, asingle strap may serve all of those wired together pads. In addition,grid lines (e.g., 108) may be formed with or subsequent to formingelectroplatable pads in step 158. In step 160 a passivation layer isformed on the wafer and patterned to re-expose the electroplatable padswhile leaving the grid lines protected. Next for the Example of FIG. 2A,in step 162 the pads are electroplated and in step 164 the wafer isdiced into chips. For the example of FIG. 2B, barrier layer donuts(e.g., 134) are formed before electroplating in step 162 and step 164.

During dicing 164, the dicing saw cuts along the grid lines (108 inFIGS. 1 and 2A), which removes the grid lines 108, studs 122 and anunderlying kerf portion of each strap 114, electrically separating eachplated pad 140, 142 from other plated pads (other than pads that areintentionally connected together such as supply pads). Since the straps114 are of a self-passivating material (e.g., tungsten), exposing thecut end of the straps to the environment at chip side walls by dicingdoes not introduce any effects that might be detrimental to theoperation of the semiconductor device, e.g., corrosion or contaminationpaths.

Advantageously, the present invention allows sequentially platingdifferent metals, e.g., alternating layers of nickel and gold, formultilevel concurrent plating. Normally, nickel oxidizes and platinggold on oxidized nickel is difficult if not impossible. Theelectroplated pads, which are simultaneously passivated as they areformed, have a high aspect ratio than similarly formed pads, formedusing well known damascene metallization processes; and so, pads formedaccording to the present invention may be thicker for improved moduleattach, in particular for C4 or wirebond connections which also bondbetter to noble metals. Further, electroplating provides finer pitchcontrol for increased line widths on narrower spaces, especially overstate of the art photolithography and reactive ion etching techniques.Further, because the pads are electroplated noble metals, much smallerfeatures can be made and used than for typical state of the art liftoffpad formation techniques. In addition, the low resistance connectionsfacilitate forming high “Q” passive elements, especially high Q (i.e.,low series resistance) inductors. Yet another advantage is the platedpads do not have the potential for undercuts encountered using RIE onTiW or in etching copper. Thus, the line width variation from undercutsis avoided/greatly reduced, thereby improving line width control andprocess reliability.

While the invention has been described in terms of preferredembodiments, those skilled in the art will recognize that the inventioncan be practiced with modification within the spirit and scope of theappended claims.

1. A method of forming integrated circuit (IC) chips on a semiconductorwafer, said method comprising the steps of: a) forming devices in asemiconductor layer; b) forming pad straps at said semiconductor layer;c) forming wiring layers above said semiconductor layer, said wiringlayers selectively wiring devices together; d) forming metal pads in apad layer on said wiring layers; e) forming a conductive terminal,wiring on said wiring layers connecting said conductive terminal throughsaid pad straps to said metal pads, wherein grid lines are formedbetween chips on said semiconductor wafer, said grid lines beingconnected to said conductive terminal; and f) plating said metal padswith a noble metal.
 2. A method of forming IC chips as in claim 1,wherein before the step (f) of plating said metal pads, said methodfurther comprises the step of: f1) forming a crack stop ring around eachof said IC chips.
 3. A method of forming IC chips as in claim 1, whereinsaid conductive terminal is a conductive ring around said semiconductorwafer and before the step (f) of plating said metal pads, said methodfurther comprises the steps of: f1) forming a passivation layer on saidsemiconductor wafer; and f2) opening said passivation layer at saidmetal pads and said conductive terminal.
 4. A method of forming IC chipsas in claim 3, further comprising the step of: f3) forming a donutshaped barrier ring at each open metal pad, said metal pads being platedinternal to said donut shaped barrier ring.
 5. A method of forming ICchips as in claim 4, wherein the donut shaped barrier ring, the gridlines and the conductive terminal are formed using a plating barriermetal selected from the group comprising nickel (Ni), tantalum (Ta),tantalum nitride (TaN), titanium (Ti), titanium nitride (TiN), aluminum(Al), tungsten (W), chromium (Cr), titanium tungsten (TiW) andcombinations thereof.
 6. A method of forming IC chips as in claim 5,wherein the donut shaped barrier ring and the conductive terminal areformed using tantalum nitride on tantalum (Ta/TaN).
 7. A method offorming IC chips as in claim 1, wherein the step (b) of forming padstraps comprises forming tungsten pad straps.
 8. A method of forming ICchips as in claim 1, wherein the step (d) of forming metal padscomprises forming copper/nickel pads.
 9. A method of forming integratedcircuit (IC) chips on a semiconductor wafer, said method comprising thesteps of: a) forming devices in a semiconductor layer; b) formingtungsten pad straps at said semiconductor layer; c) forming wiringlayers above said semiconductor layer, said wiring layers selectivelywiring devices together; d) forming copper/nickel pads in a pad layer onsaid wiring layers; e) forming a conductive terminal, wiring on saidwiring layers connecting said conductive terminal through said tungstenpad straps to said copper/nickel pads; f) plating said copper/nickelpads with a noble metal; g) dicing said semiconductor wafer, saidcopper/nickel pad connection to said conductive terminal and kerfconnections to each tungsten pad strap being removed by dicing.
 10. Amethod of forming IC chips as in claim 9, wherein grid lines are formedbetween chips on said semiconductor wafer in the step (e) of forming theconductive terminal, said grid lines being connected to said conductiveterminal, said grid lines being and said conductive terminal beingformed using a plating barrier metal selected from the group comprisingnickel (Ni), tantalum (Ta), tantalum nitride (TaN), titanium (Ti),titanium nitride (TiN), aluminum (Al), tungsten (W), chromium (Cr),titanium tungsten (TiW) and combinations thereof.
 11. A method offorming IC chips as in claim 10, wherein before the step (f) of platingsaid copper/nickel pads, said method further comprises the step of: f1)forming a crack stop ring around each of said IC chips.
 12. A method offorming IC chips as in claim 10, wherein said conductive terminal is aconductive ring of said plating barrier metal formed around saidsemiconductor wafer and before the step (f) of plating saidcopper/nickel pads, said method further comprises the steps of: f1)forming a passivation layer on said semiconductor wafer; and f2) openingsaid passivation layer at said copper/nickel pads and said conductiveterminal.
 13. A method of forming IC chips as in claim 12, furthercomprising the step of: f3) forming a donut shaped barrier ring of saidplating barrier metal at each open said copper/nickel pad, saidcopper/nickel pads being plated internal to said donut shaped barrierring.
 14. A method of forming integrated circuit (IC) chips on asemiconductor wafer, said method comprising the steps of: a) formingdevices in a semiconductor layer; b) forming pad straps at saidsemiconductor layer; c) forming wiring layers above said semiconductorlayer, said wiring layers selectively wiring devices together; d)forming metal pads in a pad layer on said wiring layers; e) forming aconductive terminal, wiring on said wiring layers connecting saidconductive terminal through said pad straps to said metal pads; f)plating said metal pads with a noble metal; and g) dicing saidsemiconductor wafer, said metal pad connection to said conductiveterminal and kerf connections to each strap being removed by dicing. 15.A method of forming IC chips as in claim 14, wherein the noble metal isselected from the group comprising gold, platinum, palladium, rhodium,ruthenium, osmium, iridium and indium.
 16. A method of forming IC chipsas in claim 15, wherein the noble metal is gold.
 17. A method of formingIC chips as in claim 14, wherein the noble metal is selected from thegroup comprising gold, platinum, palladium, rhodium, ruthenium, osmium,iridium and indium.
 18. A method of forming IC chips as in claim 17,wherein the noble metal is gold and the plating barrier metal istantalum nitride on tantalum (Ta/TaN).